Such electronic devices correspond, in non-exclusive manner, to electronic cards, or to any electronic device including at least, or coming into communication with, an electronic card, such as, in particular, a smart card for which good security is required against any external intrusion.
In order to ensure that the above-mentioned cards present good security, an end-of-life transition mechanism is activated on detecting certain critical errors.
Nevertheless, the end-of-life transition process for that type of device, particularly when relating to smart cards, appears to be problematic since such a process relies, in broad terms, on a process of writing to a non-volatile reprogrammable memory, generally an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), said write process having the purpose of erasing data and blocking applications.
Such a process nevertheless appears to be vulnerable since it can be detected from outside the card, in particular because of the large amount of current drawn by the process of writing in the reprogrammable memory, and also because it requires a certain length of time to be performed.
A dishonest third party is thus free to prevent execution of such a process by cutting off the electrical power supply to the device or to the card.